Hacker Finds A Way To Save And Restore Back-ups To The Switch

It’s just not available to you or me currently

While there’s no denying the success of the Nintendo Switch, the system is far from perfect. One of the biggest issues and a pet peeve of mine is that you can’t back up your saves on the system to the cloud or a memory. Meaning that if you happen to drop it, toss it out of a window or even get it stolen. Well, you’re out of luck. Sure, Nintendo can copy your saves to another Switch, if you send it in. Even still, we’ll all read the horror stories of someone’s 50+ hour Breath of the Wild save going missing.

Managing saves is definitely one of the Switch’s biggest downfalls. So why hasn’t Nintendo done something about this already?

However, it seems that one determined person, Bernardo Giordano, has found a way around this. And if the name sounds familiar, it should. As the is the same person who developed the 3DS save manager, Checkpoint. He’s come up with a similar solution to not only backup Nintendo Switch saves, but also restore them. Seems pretty decent, doesn’t it? But does it work?

Well, yes, it does. Bernardo actually showed Kotaku the application in action. A working concept in action sounds good to me.

Image from Kotaku

Image from Kotaku

So does that mean that we’ll all be able to use the software? Not at the moment. Bernardo has stated that the software isn’t available to the public currently. For now, it’s only available to him and a select bunch of others. While the source will be uploaded to Github later, most won’t be able to use this. There isn’t a release date for and there may never be one. I know that may seem discouraging, but perhaps it is for the best.

Bernardo has also reached out to Nintendo regarding this new tool, but as yet to receive a reply. Though it’s not hard to imagine what Nintendo would likely say. They’re not found of people tinkering with their stuff or developing anything that infringes on their properties. While Checkpoint was made to manage game saves, it could also serve another purpose – piracy.

So far, the Switch has been damn near rock solid when it comes to piracy. Something that I’m sure Nintendo is very keen on keeping it that way. Now while Checkpoint isn’t made to circumvent any measures in place, it could lead to people being able to modify their saves. If that is possible, then there could also be a chance that someone finds out how to find vulnerabilities on the Switch.

Of course, an easy solution to all this would be for Nintendo to offer some sort of Cloud-based save system. Develop an app that we download to the Switch, which connects to Nintendo’s system and lets us copy/save our data to a location of their choosing. That way they’d be able to protect their stuff and we’d be able to protect our game saves. It sounds simple, doesn’t it? So why doesn’t this exist yet? That’s a really good question.

About The Author

Keith Mitchell is the Founder and Editor in Chief of The Outerhaven. A grizzled IT professional during the day, but a passionate lover of video games after his 9-5 grid. Loves playing the Dark Souls series and has been gaming since he was 6 years old. You can find him on Twitter as @Shadowhaxor or you can email her at keith.mitchell@theouterhaven.net.